Fermented & preserved ── Tsukemono (pickles)
Hiroshimana-zuke
Hiroshimana-zuke — a mild, faintly peppery leaf pickle grown only around Hiroshima
A mild leaf pickle made from hiroshimana, a napa-cabbage relative grown only around Hiroshima. Low in fiber and crisp to bite into, it has long been cultivated on the fertile sandbar land of the Ota River delta.
- Origin: Hiroshima Hiroshima (Asaminami Ward)
- About 680 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Hiroshimana is classed as a napa-cabbage relative in the mustard family, low in fiber and tender, prized as a lightly salted pickle for its crisp bite and faint peppery edge. Sown in September, it's fully grown by December, and frost is said to sharpen its flavor further. Its stem shape also earns it the name hiragoki, flat stem, though many older residents still call it kyona, Kyoto green.
How it's made
Harvested hiroshimana is lightly pickled and cut into 3-4cm lengths to wrap rice balls, added to New Year's zoni soup, or chopped into a rice topping. The aged version is also enjoyed as ochazuke. The Kawauchi district of Asaminami-ku, Hiroshima, on a well-drained, fertile sandbar of the Ota River, has long been the crop's growing ground, where it also goes by mochina when used in zoni.
Why it took this shape
It's said to trace to seed brought back from Kyoto during a feudal lord's obligatory Edo journey, and some think its roots lie in Kyoto's mibuna green. Grouped with Nagano's nozawana and Kyushu's takana as one of Japan's “three great pickling greens,” it grew into a defining Hiroshima specialty as it adapted to the region's particular soil and climate. The name hiroshimana itself is said to date only to 1933.
Before you go
- How to shop at a supermarketHow to choose prepared foods, sashimi, and packaged sushi, when discount stickers tend to appear, region-only specialties, buying by weight, the checkout and bagging flow, and sampling etiquette at a local supermarket.
- How to shop in a depachika (department store food hall)A guide to browsing prepared foods and bento, choosing wagashi as a gift with a good shelf life, sampling etiquette, end-of-day discounts, asking for cold packs and wrapping, and finding your way around a depachika floor.
- Enjoying a bussanten (regional products fair)A guide to what's sold at a bussanten (regional products fair), how to find one, when it gets crowded, shelf life and taking food home, and how to fit one around a trip.
Dishes in the same style
- Bettara-zukeDaikon salted first, then pickled sweet in rice malt and sugar — said to descend from a lightly pickled daikon once sold at Edo's ebisu-kō market. The rice malt gives it a natural sweetness, and it still headlines Nihonbashi's autumn "Bettara Market."
- Fukujin-zukeSeven kinds of vegetables — daikon, eggplant, lotus root among them — diced and steeped in a soy-based marinade. Said to have originated in Tokyo, it's best known today as curry rice's standard side.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Contrast
- Takana-zukeMustard greens salted with chili — a pickle found across Kyushu. There is a lightly salted fresh version and an aged one fermented for half a year, and both get chopped into rice, stir-fries, and more.
- Nozawana-zukeA leaf-mustard pickle put up in bulk to see Nagano through winter. A turnip once brought from Kyoto is said to have changed in the cold highlands of Nozawa Onsen, growing only leaf and stem — sweeter and softer the more frost it takes.
Also from Hiroshima
- Anago MeshiConger eel, grilled kabayaki-style, is sliced and layered over rice cooked in dashi—a dish from Miyajima. It uses "Seto anago," prized for the fat that fast currents help build into the fish, and is said to have begun in 1901 as a bento sold at Miyajimaguchi station.
- AzumaSardine-like mamakari, cured in vinegar, is pressed onto seasoned okara instead of vinegared rice in this coastal sushi. It is said to have begun as a way to stretch scarce rice by substituting the cheap, plentiful soy pulp, and was served at festivals and New Year's gatherings.
- Bishu NabeChicken, gizzard, and pork are simmered with nothing more than salt, pepper, and sake in this hot pot from Saijo, one of Japan's noted brewing towns. It is said to have begun as a simple meal cooked by sake brewers between batches, seasoned lightly so as not to dull their palate for tasting.
- Fuchu-yakiA Fuchu, Hiroshima take on okonomiyaki that swaps sliced pork belly for ground beef or pork worked right into the batter, so the meat's flavor is said to come through evenly in every bite.
- GansuFish paste coated in panko and fried, a Kure, Hiroshima specialty. Said to have been devised in the postwar 1940s as a way to use leftover fish paste from kamaboko production, an unusual pairing of fried fish cake and cutlet-style crumb.